10 Slang Phrases Used by Black Twitter That Have Been Culturally Appropriated by the Mainstream

There are rare occasions where mainstream media use Black Twitter slang in a way that the online community actually appreciates. Denny’s accomplished this rare achievement by using a term that was popularized by a Vine video of a young Black woman claiming her “eyebrows [were] on fleek.” It wasn’t long before Denny’s tweeted, “Hashbrowns on fleek.” The tweet quickly garnered more than 25,000 retweets. While the joke was received well on social media and actually reposted by many members of the Black Twitter community, it doesn’t take away the fact that it was yet another example of a white corporation benefitting from the lingo generated in Black pop culture. Denny’s has still been having a blast with Black Twitter slang after also sending out a tweet saying, “Will Shmoney dance for pancakes.”

Cuffing Season

Cuffing season isn’t just a term for Black Twitter, it’s a full-blown tradition that has caused the #CuffingSeasonDraft to pop up on several occasions. Unfortunately, all the fun and games were ruined when Gawker published an article titled “You Don’t Need a Winter Romance: The Case Against Cuffing Season.” Not only did the piece take the comedic cuffing season trend too seriously, but it marked the beginning of another era of Columbusing by mainstream media. As a writer for The Salad Bowl explained, the Black community has to ask when mainstream media has crossed the line from trying to incorporate Black voices and Black pop culture references to taking such lingo and feeding it to the “Culture Vultures, who have given us Miley the Twerk Queen, Basic B***H as a term for white biddies, Kendall [Jenner] doing Cornroll (sic) Chic, the White Girl with the Booty and other such infractions.”